What to pack for backpacking Europe

Everything You Need To Pack For Backpacking Europe

Packing List For Anyone Wanting To Travel Europe

Are you planning on backpacking in Europe? This list is everything myself (Sean) and my Finacee Holly packed for our 3 month-long trips around Europe.

What you will get from this list is everything you need to pack for males, females, travel vloggers and travel bloggers. It is a big list but it fits into just 4 bags. 2 large backpacks and 2 cabin bags.

Use this list of items as a guide for your backpacking adventure.

I do use affiliate links to Amazon, And other Sites, these don’t cost you more but if you decide to buy using these links, I will make a commission which helps support our travels

The Bags

This is the most important choice you will have to make when thinking about what and how to pack.

You go big you go heavy, and you have the problem of having to put the bag in the hold on the plane.

You go small you don’t have enough room for everything.

But personally, a small bag is better than a big bag that is uncomfortable.

Holly’s bag is much better designed than mine, it’s very square and easy to pack, mine is long and thin with lots of features that are not being used or not being optimised to their full potential.

Saying this, my bag weighs a lot more than Holly’s and can fit a little bit more. And would have to go in the hold of the plane anyway due to my drone, no matter the size.

Whereas Holly’s fits perfectly as a large Cabin bag on nearly all airlines.

Sean’s

Holly’s

Everything below fits into our backpacks

Packing cubes

This is the first trip where I have used packing cubes, normally it’s chaos. Clothes are chucked into a large bag and this means everything you don’t use goes to the bottom of the bag and stays there.

Having packing cubes is a great way to compress your kit but mainly organise It for faster packing and unpacking.

Mine are compression packing cubes whereas Holly’s are designed to fit her bag, so probably the best way for both of our bags.

Sean’s

Holly’s

  • Cabin zero x 3

Heavy Clothes

This could be considered the most pointless part of your kit. Especially if you plan to travel during the summer months and you are not used to the hot weather.

Being from England is unlikely I’ll be in anything other than shorts and a t-shirt If it’s over 20’c

But saying this We did need most of this kit on the cold days. As it gets more into summer you have a choice of sending it home, Carrying it or recycling it

Sean’s

  • 1 jogging bottoms (Cheap pair)
  • 1 (North face) fleece
  • 1 (Vans) hoodie
  • 2 pairs of jeans ( one cheap, one levis Jeans)
  • 1 thick shirt (Hollister)

Holly’s

  • 1 hoodie (cheap)
  • 1 jumper (Knicks)
  • 3pairs of trousers ( light trousers, 2x Lucy & Yak and 1x Marks and Spencer’s)

Underwear

Underwear has the main job of keeping you comfortable when travelling. No one wants boxers that ride up or bras with wire digging in on a long coach ride.

Another thing is you know how hard it can be to keep socks together in a house. Imagine how hard it is moving hotels to hostels to Airbnb. So cheap & easy-to-replace socks are best.

Sean’s

Holly’s

  • 3 Bralettes (cheap and comfortable)
  • 8 pairs of pants ( step one, and Marks and Spencers. Both anti-chaffing boxers)
    Women’s Step one
  • 10 pairs of socks (mix of ankle and long, all cheap)

T-shirts & shirts

Comfort and cheapness are key. T-shirts are the easiest thing to replace and you probably will want to buy the odd T-shirt at a tourist shop.

Another thing you’ll find, with the fact you will wear a rotation of clothes (our rotation is 8 days) you wear out your t-shirts quickly. So buying expensive tops can be a waste of money.

Saying this… one or two quick-drying stuff might get you out of a pinch when you need to wash your clothes in the sink.

Sean’s

  • 5 Shirts (colourful holiday s**t shirts)
  • 5 T-Shirts ( 4 cheaps, 1 quick dry)

Holly’s

  • 6 t-shirts ( cheap)
  • 1 shirt (cheap)
  • 1 dress (lightweight and cheap)
  • 4 vests (cheap)

Shorts and sleeping clothes

Might be a weird category to combine but the reason I’ve combined them is to emphasise the fact pj’s are a great way of downsizing kit.

Instead of buying a whole outfit for sleeping in (which most will only use in hostels), you can break apart some of your everyday kit.

For me, I use the T-shirts that wear during the day as a top and then add a light pair of shorts

For Holly, she uses an oversized shirt and then adds a pair of her day shorts

Sean’s

  • 1 Pair of day shorts (cheap black shorts)
  • 2 pairs of PJ bottoms ( Cheap)

Holly

  • 1 pair of cycle shorts (cheap)
  • 4 normal shorts (cheap)

Random extras

The question you need to ask…

“Am I going to use this in the first week of travel?” If the answer is no or maybe, don’t pack it.

You can always get it if you need it.

This stuff might be random but here is what this is for…

Playing cards for hostels (drinking games and regular games. Great way of making friends)

Towel, self-explanatory

Sewing stuff, to put my patches on my jacket.

Face masks, my sister got them for us as a way to unwind after long journeys

2 Sunglasses, I will break at least a pair before I get home.

Universal plug for sinks is to wash our clothes without a washing machine.

Bandanas are Holly’s hair bands

The Jewellery box is a travel one and it’s great for storage.

Sean’s

Holly’s

  • Towel (quick drying and small)
  • 2 bandanas ( for Holly’s hair)
  • Jewellery box

Wash stuff

As much as our packed items are a bit of a list. Holly has downsized the amount she normally uses on a day-to-day basis.

Where I have just packed my usual stuff, just in bar form if possible, because it saves on weight and has no chance of leakage.

Apart from changing to bars, we didn’t pick up travel-sized stuff, just smaller items.  Travel-sized stuff lasts a week max, pointless for a long journey.

We shouldn’t have to pick anything up when we travel.

Sean’s

Holly’s

  • Toothbrush
  • Shampoo bar
  • Conditioner bar
  • Soap bar
  • Hair gel
  • Hair curl cream
  • Mascara
  • Eyeliner
  • Eyebrow pencil
  • Eyebrow gel
  • Concealer
  • Nail clippers
  • Plasters
  • Antihistamines
  • Painkillers
  • Perfume (10ml)
  • Hand cream
  • Hair ties
  • Brush
  • Comb

Drone stuff (Sean only)

This is the first part of my travel vlogging kit. You can scroll past if you don’t have a drone or don’t plan on getting one.

I have packed my Dji mini 2 Drone, which weighs just less than 500g and isn’t much bigger than the palm of my hand. but saying this with the controller and the batteries. It takes up the same size as a small packing cube and probably weighs near to a kilo

Laptop (Sean only)

Again this is part of my vlogging/blogging kit. So skip it if you’re not thinking about taking a laptop.

Most phones can do what my laptop can do, If I was just a blogger I would probably just take a tablet and an attachable keyboard.

But I wanted to edit videos as I travel, and not have 3 months’ worth when I get back. My laptop is a gaming laptop but it won’t be used as one while I’m travelling, with seeing the world and editing videos, I don’t have time.

Hand luggage bags

We carry these bags alongside our main backpacks but if you are clever or aren’t planning to travel vlog then you won’t need most of the things in the carry-on bag you could put them in an easy-to-reach pocket of your bag or even a jacket.

Sean’s

Holly’s

  • Switch
  • Switch games
  • Headphones
  • Notebook
  • Instax printer
  • Glasses
  • Pen
  • Sunglasses

Thanks for reading.

If you want to see my bag in a video and see how everything looks and even how I managed to arrange and pack it.

Check out this video here…

What we Packed for the ULTIMATE Europe Adventure!

And I’ll see you again…. soon